Direct Marketing and Market Research

At QIAGEN, transparent structures and a credible as well as trust-building behaviour are essential parts of the company culture. We value our clients and we respect their privacy and interests. The company maintains strict policies and uses sophisticated practices and procedures to ensure them.

Purpose

The purpose of this policy is to outline the acceptable use of email/mail to communicate our products and services to you. It also defines the proper use of email/mail for market research purposes. QIAGEN performs market research activities to gain a better understanding of your expectations of our company, to improve our products and services, and to develop new products and services that anticipate your future needs. The policy rules the proper use of all global, regional and customer segment specific emails/mails, the latter being emails/mails that go out specifically e.g., to our customers in pharma or academia.

The rules are in place to prevent you from being sent email/mail which you may perceive as intrusive, irrelevant or even offensive. Also, we seek to restrict the total number of emails/mails we send out to you to prevent you from being overwhelmed with messages.

Eligibility

Global as well as regional direct marketing emails/mails can be sent from QIAGEN headquarter as well as from any company subsidiary. Market research emails/mails are typically sent by third parties, but QIAGEN as the originator of the market research will be mentioned in the respective email/mail, possibly held as invisible as possible to prevent from a biasing effect. QIAGEN does not allow a third party to use your contact data for other purposes than agreed. Our privacy policy details our handling of your privacy.

To whom do we send our direct marketing and market research emails/mails?

We distribute direct marketing and market research e-mail/mail only to persons or organizations who have explicitly requested it, or with which we have a pre-existing personal or business relationship that can be verified. For example, previous purchases, organization membership, or requests for information would be valid connections. Correspondence that is relevant and contextual to an original relationship is also acceptable.

Follow-up with opt-outs and opt-ins

We follow-up with every request to stop being sent further mailings (by email/mail) and we ensure the timely and adequate fulfilment of all requests. We also ensure the timely and adequate fulfilment of all requests to start receiving mailings.

Policy Abuse

That all QIAGEN employees follow this policy is of the utmost seriousness and importance to us. We educate the proper use of the policy, we have installed approval processes for every outgoing email/ mail, and we use tools to ensure compliance to our rules. However, despite all preventive measures and email policies, the possibility remains that a recipient will view an email/mail as unwanted (spam). Every complaint that is received gets read and acted upon, we follow-up with every complaint.

An opt-in management tool is employed on every outgoing email and is also accessible via www.qiagen.com. Using this tool, interested persons can explicitly subscribe to receive direct marketing and/or market research material.

Opt-out requests are honoured and remembered without exception. Every outgoing email/mail includes a notice of the opt-out, customers and prospects can use to unsubscribe from receiving further direct marketing and/or market research material.

Panels and access pools are established to perform market research activities.

Compliance requirements for email

1. No materially false or misleading headers on all electronic mail messages, with no exception.
2. No deceptive subject lines in electronic mail messages.
3. E-mail must contain a valid physical postal address.
4. E-mail must contain clear and conspicuous identification that the message is an advertisement or solicitation.
5. E-mail must include a clear and conspicuous notice of the OPT-Out:

OPT-Out must be clearly displayed in the electronic mail message.

Allows recipient to request not to receive future electronic mail messages from that sender at the electronic mail address where the message was received.

OPT-Out must be functional for 30 days after the message was transmitted.

The OPT-Out must be put in effect within 10 days of receiving the request.

6. Actions prohibited include:

Harvesting of e-mail addresses and dictionary attacks

Automated creation of multiple email accounts

Relay or retransmission through unauthorized access

7. E-Mail to Wireless Devices:

Express prior authorization to receive messages from a specific sender whose identity must be provided at the time of authorization. Consent through electronic methods (such as e-mail), must contain the subscriber's signature, including electronic signatures.